Short Review: GURPS After the End 1

So, in an earlier post I was discussing repurposing the radiation rules to represent magical contamination.  Who could have predicted that GURPS After the End 1: Wastelanders, the most recent release, would have something I can immediately use?  The simplified Radiation Points system, as well as Mutations and Freakishness, do what I was going for.  With a bit of tweaking for flavor they'll be exactly what I want.  Kudos to PK on this one.

It's an excellent book. The templates are well-balanced but focused enough to be good at their core purposes, which is more of a challenge at 150 points than the 250+ in the other themed series.  I think dropping Wealth in this series is a good idea; paying points for equipment directly makes more sense. After all, there would be no Jobs in the "40 hours a week" sense and Wealth interacts with and relies on jobs to a great degree.

The "grab and play" series (Dungeon Fantasy, Action, and Monster Hunters) have been really good in general. For me, Dungeon Fantasy is the best, but if this series lives up to this strong start it could be as good.  I know there's at least one more planned and I hope it spawns a decent sized series, as this is a genre GURPS has missed because Steve Jackson had dibs on writing it (GURPS Survivors, anyway).  Makes me wonder why he dropped that objection, though he hasn't written for GURPS in a while so that likely plays a part.


Final Grade: A.  It's definitely a recommended buy for any GURPS GM with any interest in post-apoc gaming.  Like most GURPS books it has things in it that can be mined for other genres as well.